See the companion article on Racebox Data Analysis.

RaceBox Mini Application Instructions for Autocross- Ed Fisher comes from a forum post I came across while trying to learn how to use the device. Mods by me based on v2.1.3 of the Racebox app for iOS and my particular process.

Setup the Course

I recently was going through old photos and scanning interesting things. One thing that I’d had in my possession for years but never looked at was a swim meet program that my Great Aunt Ethel sent to her brother Ted (my grandfather).

The Marstons lived in Honolulu from around 1910-1935? Ted, Ethel, Stan and Warren were all active in local schools, attended McKinley High School and swam for the Outrigger Canoe Club.

After years of no maintenance on a weirdly growing set of redwood trees at the Santa Cruz house, we started to get a failure in the fence. The debris was pushing the fence into the neighbors yard. 

We had gardeners try to keep it clean, but it really needed a stump grinding. We hired StumpKing and Kyle got the job done.

Here's before and after.

Began the year with a trip out to the Seymour Center to play with the touch tanks.

Replaced the patio uplights that had been installed in the new patio in 2012. The constant moisture and exposure had dulled the lights and in some cases they were shorted out. So we bought replacements and I rewired them back up. Here's a before, during and after look.

I spent a lot of time in the Fall months rewatching some old videos on YouTube about slalom improvements. Given the much longer runs at Crows Landing, I was thinking that this was an area I might be able to see some time improvements. That may not have panned out, but I think I got better at understanding car positioning for back siding; understanding the entry/exit points relative to the next course obstacle and getting back to full speed in the last two cones in a slalom.

Here are a couple of videos from last week after the huge swell passed through. As usual, the swell moved the sandbars around so that there were multiple sections to take advantage of.

I'm experimenting here with the Ultrawide lens for my GoPro 13. We're shooting at 1:1 to see how it works. I'm noticing more water spots than on the default lens but I may have gummed it up with hand oils or surf wax. I cleaned it after the first day.

I've been holding on to a board for the past year that I've only ridden once. That wasn't a great day, but I'm now surfing better and am thinking about getting it out in the water.

A year or so ago a work colleague offered me a foamie for my grandnephew to use. His kids were now adults and it was sitting on a rack in his garage. At the time, he offered me a permanent loan of this other board. I of course said yes without knowing what it was. 

Today we're going to work on thirds. No, not musically, long-istically; e.g., rear and mid sections of a 9' longboard. Here you can see where I removed the wax so I could do a quick check of foot positioning. What we're hoping for is to successfully move back to get better pivoting for carving turns and move forward to get a better trim position. The latter should produce better speed to setup for better turns.

January has been nice so far. We had some rain after the big December storms and I’ve been surfing a few times per week. I’ve also been working on night lapse star trails and trying to capture meteor showers when the sky is clear with my GoPro.

Here's a poor resolution video from early Dec 2024 at Private's. Starting to move through turns a bit better. I'm the foreground wave for a few seconds.